I've experienced plans going wrong many times during the several years I've been Red Teaming. Sometimes because of poor planning, some others because the real world always has the last word, especially when Mr. Murphy is along for the ride - and he always is.
Over the years both experience and mental resilience had taught me to assess the situation and adapt the original plan, go to a plan B or just work without a plan. While on the field, ideally you’d be looping through 4 steps constantly:
- Understand the problem (in this case what caused the plan to not work)
- See the solution (how do I solve this in a simple, fast and reliable way)
- Communicate the new plan (to your team or to you, mentally saying the plan helps red team the issues)
- Execute it
However, while doing this you have to keep in mind the goal of the mission, assessment or engagement. It is very easy to lose focus of the goal. An instructor at one of the schools I attended while on the military, always told us to focus on the end goal, no matter how bad it was. Mission came first and if the mission was to recon a target and gather intel then that should be the focus. All our planning was geared towards achieving that mission. Once we had that, then the rest (kit, transport, alternative exfil points, etc) would cascade from there. Remember: Rule 16: Target dictates the weapon and the weapon dictates the movement. The goal comes first. The what you are planning for.
It is very easy to lose focus of this when the conditions on the field are chaotic, or not as expected. We tend to focus on the things on front of you, and while these are often pressing and more important (sometimes life or death), once we solve the immediate problem, we need to go back to the original mission.
The best way I found to do this is adding the following to the steps described above:
0: What is the goal.
So, identify the goal, identify the problems preventing you from achieving the mission, find a solution (don’t forget: the solution is in the problem), communicate that solution and execute it. If it didn’t work, or a new problem arises, start again, but always keeping the question what is the goal as the first step. This will keep you focused on your mission.